Flame

Mara rounded the corner, her full attention on the binder and folders she held in her hands. Her English report was due next period, and she was having difficulty finding it. Normally, this kind of thing never happened to her. Normally, her mind wouldn't have been on only Jerome for the past week. Normally, this shouldn't have bothered her. But it did. Her mind drifted back to searching for her paper. It should have been in her purple binder, but it had managed to evade her. As she continued to shuffle through her things, a paper slipped from hands.

"Fiddlesticks," she whispered. As she bent down to pick it up, someone beat her to it. And that someone was Jerome. The very person she had been trying so hard to avoid. "Jerome…" it barely managed to escape from her lips. He couldn't help but notice how she slightly smiled as she said his name. Their eyes briefly locked together before the two stood in unison.

He started off quietly, "Do you want to go—," only to be cut off by Joy, who jumped in front of him, her brown hair twirling about. He was not happy about this. Joy had constantly been persuading Mara to deny him since the competition.

"Remember the sisterhood Mara!" Joy stated, holding her left hand up, while balancing on her tippy toes. Before she could get anything else out, Jerome's hands pushed her back down so he could talk to Mara.

Mara could tell from Jerome's expression that he was getting tired of this. "Yes, Mara, listen to Amber," he saw her eyes flutter up to meet his, warning him to be careful. But she already knew he wasn't going to be. "Oh sorry, Joy," at that Mara's eyes went back to Joy's, offering an apology. "Still leeching off someone else's style 'til you find your own?" he could tell that had hurt her, since her eyes had gone from his pale blue ones to Mara's warm brown ones. They seemed to be asking, "Why him? Out of all people you had to choose him?" While Mara's eyes just gave an innocent "sorry."

Tensions were starting to become high, and at that moment, Willow decided to come bouncing in to make everything better. "Hi, Jerome!" she shouted, putting extra emphasis on the "O" in his name. She was full of smiles and laughs and cheerfulness and he hated it. He hated it so much. "See you in detention!" she added an additional smile. "Excite!"

While she had first run in, Mara had noticed Jerome mouthing something that looked like, "Oh my fucking god." She couldn't be sure, but it seemed like an accurate guess to her. At least she'd never have to worry about him falling for someone like Willow, seeing as how much he clearly hated her. She then turned to Joy, hoping to make things right. "Joy, he knows nothing about fashion," that didn't seem to make a change in her mood, so she added, "and he's Jerome." This had succeeded in making her friend smile again. Her happiness was rudely interrupted in the next millisecond.

"I love how you're keeping Amber's spirit alive through the medium of fashion," Joy looked like she was about to say something, but Willow proceeded to talk, so she just clenched her fists and shook her head. "And if I'd had my heart crushed in love's cruel grip, then I'd wear something that said, 'I don't cared that Fabian's not interested'," Joy was still shaking her head, and now mouthing for Willow to stop, "like—a JUMPSUIT! They're stylish and practical!" she added a slight giggle at the end for good measure.

Mara looked absolutely and utterly shocked. "Fabian…? What's that? Joy!" she whined. She knew where this had ended last time, and she wasn't about to watch her friend get her heart smashed again.

"Well you see, Fabian—"

Joy had gotten fed up with her rambling, and was determined to put an end to it, even if it meant shouting at her. Especially if it meant shouting at her. "IS YOUR NAME JOY?" That got Willow to shut up. She viciously shook her head back and forth to confirm that she wasn't.

Mara looked hurt. Everyone keeping their secrets from her the last two years had really taken a toll on her. "Why didn't you say anything?" She clucked her tongue, "Oh, you poor thing."

Joy rolled her eyes. "Oh good, pity."

Willow broke the silence. "Oooooh, Joy, if you sign my petition to join Anubis House, I can be there for you as a shoulder all the time. Oh, maybe even join your sisterhood!" Both Mara and Joy had had enough, and walked away before they would do something they knew they would regret. Willow looked extremely confused, but still upbeat and cheery. "Where are you going?"

Mara could still hear Willow's voice muttering to herself, even as she reached her own locker. Now, where was that English paper? Time had managed to slip away from her, and she had a measly five minutes to find it and make her way to the other side of the building before being late. And being late was not an option. She'd had a perfect attendance rate and no tardies since year four, and she aimed to maintain that. Even if meant going to school ill, which she had done on a multitude of occasions.

Four minutes left. She continued to vigorously shuffle through her books, checking in between the pages, but to no avail. She sighed. Dammit. Before she had a chance to bang her head against her locker, a voice interrupted her. The same one from earlier that she was still trying to avoid.

"Looking for this?" She turned around to see Jerome, with a faint smile on his lips, holding her essay. She could tell that he hadn't meant to make her stress out, and just did it for fun.

"Jerome! I've been looking everywhere for that! And now I only have," she checked her watch, "three minutes to get to the other side of the school. I'm going to be late," she said with a sigh, before snatching her paper back from him and slipped it into its rightful place in her purple binder.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her along with him. "Not if we walk fast! Come on!"

"Don't you have to get to your own class?" Mara questioned while trying to keep up with the tall boy in front of her. He easily had a foot on her, and her stride wasn't as large as his, resulting in her more being dragged along than walking.

"I do, but I'm Jerome Clarke. They won't expect me to get there on time anyway. And besides, I have to make sure a beautiful lady gets to her own class on time. What'll they do, give me more detention?" Mara had to try hard not to stop run-walking, because if she did, she would fall flat on her face. Jerome had just called her beautiful. It's not like he hadn't before, but she just wasn't expecting it. She decided she wouldn't talk the rest of the way, and instead just offered him a smile in return.

They had broken out into a full out run, and now her hand was in Jerome's. She could feel her heart beating, but she knew it wasn't just from the running. Her English class was approaching fast, and she didn't want to let go just yet. He dropped her off at her classroom with a smile, before turning and running back towards the other end of the school to get to his own class. Before she knew it, the bell rang, and she hurriedly made her way to her seat before the teacher caught her up. She hurriedly pulled out her chair and sat down, just in time.

"Good afternoon, class. Today we will be learning about 'Iambic Pentameter.' 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' This is an example of one of Shakespeare's works which demonstrates the pattern of iambic pentameter. It consists of stressed and unstressed syllables. I have a worksheet for you that will explain this and give you some practice. But first, please pass forward your essays on The Grapes of Wrath. I'm looking forward to seeing your opinions on this magnificent novel."

Mara opened her purple binder, looking forward to today's lesson. Pulling out her essay, something caught her eye. It was sticky note with a message. "I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. Want to go get lunch some time and talk things through? –Jerome xx" It was a sweet gesture, but Mara would need some time to consider the offer. She pulled the sticky note off before handing it to her English teacher.

"Ah, Mara. I'm looking forward to reading yours," he said with a grin.

The final bell rand, signaling the end of the day, and Jerome knew what that meant. Time for an hour of hell. He wasn't exactly the nicest person, and he didn't want to test his patience with Willow. He had already had an encounter with her earlier today, and that was more than enough for him. Taking his time, he gathered his calculator, and put in the inside pocket of his math folder along with his homework. He had paid no attention during the class, too busy wondering if Mara had found his note, and what her response would be. Maybe he could even get her to help him with his math if he was lucky. But there probably wouldn't be much math tutoring going on.

After visiting his locker, Jerome reluctantly made his way to the costume closet. Mr. Sweet was waiting next to the door, with a beaming Willow at his side. Jerome tried his best not to scowl.

"Ah, Jerome! Perfect timing! As you two already know, you'll need to sort through everything and catalogue it, as well as organize it and hang it back up. Good luck. You'll be needing it." He then proceeded to unlock the doors, and swung them open before taking off.

"Jerome, this is going to be so much fun! I'm glad that out of everyone, I'm doing detention with you!" she smiled her giant smile before diving into the mounds of glittery clothing. It wasn't long before Willow, being the theatrical perso she was, found something that interested her. "Jerome," he turned around at the use of his name, with a plastic leg in his hands, "I moustache you a question!" Willow was holding a cheap looking fake moustache above her lip, and he couldn't help but chuckle. "Or, ve could pretend ve are spies! Quick! Ve must find ze secret formula!" He turned around to see a sequence covered pink scarf draped around her shoulders. "I might become a spy. Though I'd also like to be a vet, or a supermodel." She put the scarf down.

Jerome was a little scared by her, and she never stopped talking. "Always good to keep your options open!" he usually wasn't this quiet, but there was just something weird about Willow that made him like this. She abruptly set her sword down, making a rather loud noise, before deciding to pick it back up.

"What do you want to be?" Her question had caught him off guard. This was something he hadn't even told Mara yet, let alone figured out himself.

"Um…" he trailed off before disappearing under a table in search of something. There was some rustling and the boxes began to move. He reemerged with a police hat on, and laughing.

Willow clapped. "Yay! …See? This is fun!"

Jerome removed the hat, and noticed the amount of dust that had accumulated in it from years of storage in the costume closet. He blew on it trying to clear some of the dust away, only to have it fly up and get in his right eye. "Ow!" Willow looked over in concern, only to see him holding his eye, and she laughed. Maybe detention with Willow for the rest of the week wouldn't be so bad. She seemed like a nice enough person.

Willow squealed and clapped her hands as Jerome held up a gladiator costume and laughed. "And to think I've been trying to avoid detention all these years."

"We could be king and queen of detention!" Jerome grabbed a hanger and sat it down. He had heard what Willow said, perfectly clearly in fact, but he wasn't planning on responding. "Unless… Mara. I mean, you two are like relationship royalty." At this point Jerome noticed that she had feathery angel wings on. Her expression also visibly sank. Jerome tried not to let this phase him.

"We were. Past tense." She seemed puzzled at this. She had picked up a rose and was clutching it close to her chest. "I messed up. She dumped me."

The hurt was obvious in his eyes, and Willow could see it. "But if she knows you're sorry, then why won't she forgive you?"

This was obviously a delicate subject for him. "Probably because I'll mess up again. It's sort of what I do."

"Well," she pointed the rose at him, "if it's what you do, then it's who you are." She smiled one of her Willow smiles, which seemed to cheer him up.

"Yeah! I'm king of messing up! King I tell you!" she smiled at him as he reached down to pluck a prince's crown from a box of clothing.

"No don't! It'll… squish your hair up," she grimaced.

"Aww, could you never be queen to a king with squished hair?"

She pointed the rose at him again. "If it was your squished hair, I think I could live with it."

"Well, alright then," he bent down to pick up the matching crown for the king. He didn't see it, but there was fear in Willow's eyes. She was afraid of falling for him. She was afraid of him falling for her. And she was afraid of hurting Mara, who might even end up being her roommate. "I crown you, Queen Willow, of the Costume Cupboard. Your majesty." They both bowed to each other, and laughed nervously. The two were just about pull away, when they noticed how close they were to each other. Had it been anyone else, Jerome would have pulled away and rid his mind of all of these thoughts. But Willow did something to him.

He looked down into her eyes, and she looked up into his. They both felt their heart beat quicken, and their breath hitch. Ever so slowly, Jerome leaned down, and placed his lips upon hers.

AN: Ahhh! I'm back! I know I've been on a super long hiatus, but I didn't die. I just lost my inspiration and stuff. But now I'm back and I plan to update more than I ever did before and make my chapters longer and improve on my writing! So anyways, about this story. I think this is as much of the original Jara/Jerillow storyline that this will follow. From now on, it'll just be what I want to happen. So hopefully I actually update it. And this is going to be about the whole Jara/Jerillow love triangle that is currently existing. I'm not sure how I feel about jerillow yet. I think some of the original Jara stuff that I like has died, and I don't ship it as much anymore. There was a post I saw on tumlbr about how they realized they more so shipped HHA jeroen/Mara than HOA Jerome/Mara. So I guess that's where I'm at too. So yeah. Hopefully I get back into the habit of this writing thing, and I may even finish my other stories. I promise! And anyways, review to show your love or hate!

Peace ~jenc0449

And hopefully FF saves my linebreaks this time, since it never has before :/ But if not, if the stories just randomly changes, just know there was supposed to be a line break there.